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| | Lawmakers scrambling on consolidation
Thursday, Jan 15, 2004 By David Robinson and Rob Moritz Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - With the success of their special session hinging on school consolidation, Arkansas lawmakers scrambled Wednesday for a consolidation bill their colleagues could stomach. The latest reorganization bill, which would consolidate administrations of school districts with fewer than 350 students, was endorsed by the House Education Committee on Wednesday. The bill is expected to be considered by the House today. Legislative support has waned for consolidating districts with fewer than 500 students, a threshold favored by Gov. Mike Huckabee. A last-ditch effort with the 500-student minimum is expected in the House Education Committee today in House Bill 1106. The bill by Rep. Calvin Johnson, D-Pine Bluff, would not close schools. Johnson has sponsored previous failed consolidation bills embraced by Huckabee. Other lawmakers were pursuing different measures in the House and Senate because they believe some restructuring will be necessary to win votes for court-ordered education-related tax increases. The bill with the 350 consolidation number is by Rep. Will Bond, D-Jacksonville. The committee gave it a quick endorsement, giving bond some hope that his bill would be embraced as a compromise. "We're looking for some common ground," Bond said. "Many people in the House have been working, looking for that common ground, and hopefully this bill will be it." He also noted that the Legislature had tied a record for the number of days in special session - 38 - and his colleagues are feeling pressure to finish the job. Bond's HB 1109 would provide money to make consolidation of school districts with fewer than 350 students easier. It also would provide financial incentives for the voluntary administrative consolidations of districts between 350 and 500 students. Rep. LeRoy Dangeau, D-Wynne, who has opposed previous consolidation measures, said he supports HB 1109. He said it addresses only consolidation and does not get into adding operational functions to the state Department of Education or changing the governance of educational cooperatives - issues included in bills backed by the governor. "It's a very fair bill," Dangeau said, adding he thinks it might be the compromise that could be passed by both the House and Senate. Johnson, chairman of the House Education Committee, said he still wants a consolidation bill with a 500-student minimum and isn't ready to support HB 1109. Meanwhile, another House consolidation proposal that hadn't even been filed was creating considerable buzz in the state Capitol hallways Wednesday morning. While providing protections for small schools, the proposal by Rep. Mike Hathorn, D-Huntsville, would create countywide school districts for all districts with fewer than 3,000 students. Hathorn said he's found plenty of support for his idea. "I know it's late in the session to come with a bill of this magnitude," he said. "But ... this is the one bill that I've found the greatest amount of consensus for. Let's have one unified system. Let's not be down here every two years fighting over where district lines ought to be." Hathorn said his bill would generate "incredible savings because we're going from 308 school districts to 106 school districts." Representatives of the Arkansas School Boards Association said they were doubtful that such consolidation would create savings because on-site management still will be necessary in those schools. Hathorn said he would provide a financial impact statement with his bill. Meanwhile, Sen. Brenda Gullett, D-Pine Bluff, a supporter of Huckabee's consolidation plans, has been working with anti-consolidation lawmakers on a compromise. Gullett said Huckabee rejected a tentative offer that would consolidate school districts of fewer than 250 students and create resulting districts of at least 500 students. She's now working in support of an amendment to those lawmakers' bill that would base consolidation on a district's inability to meet education standards. With Gullett's help and support, the standards-based House Bill 1021 has been changed so that it would allow the consolidation of districts with fewer than 500 students but with exceptions for districts that have 75 percent or more students qualified for the federal free and reduced lunch program. "I see this debate just dwindling to nothing, and I guess I'm at the point of moving forward some," Gullett said Wednesday morning. "It's better than the courts taking over. I just tried to see if I could cobble together something that would get everybody on board." Lawmakers face a possible court takeover of state coffers and the education system after missing a Jan. 1 Supreme Court deadline to fix the state's education system. The court has asked for briefs to be filed by today and oral arguments will be heard Jan. 22. Lawmakers believe they must have a new funding formula and the taxes to support it adopted before the oral arguments take place. The high court did not mention the need for consolidation in its November 2002 ruling, but the governor and many lawmakers agree that consolidation is necessary to afford the improvements required by the court. |
